Im just curious does this game exist (worth buying) or its just dead. I tried to install it from CD , it as in one of magazines i did read in past, and i played it a lot, but i see limitations on servers, and lack of "good maps" i used to have on my disk form various creators. I see there is tons of these games , but i dont think cominity is big anymore. I also noticed that ubisoft have his hands on it so im concerned about microtransactions.
I used to play it a lot when i was a kid, so its natural i would just come for month up to 3 months. Just for racing fun
And yes im 95 % sure i will not be able to get my account back

The community is still very much alive in both United & TM2.
There are still loads of great quality tracks being uploaded on united.tm-exchange.com
Ubisoft's impact on the game has been very little, they pretty much just publish the games and that's it.

The place to get some good tracks for TMO is here: http://original.tm-exchange.com/
The game is pretty much dead, there are few random players showing up occasionally during the week, or at least this is as much as I can see when I'm online.
There are 2 servers running (yes, masterserver is still working), but 24/7 just one (outerspace) and I usually launch mine whenever I'm home (usually afternoons/evenings these days) but I rarely get any visitors.
So as conclusion, I would suggest to buy the game only if you have a spare few bucks and you want to try the game once more and maybe play online a little (but most likely alone, unless you're lucky enough to be available in the right time that someone joins you).
Keep in mind that with a new cd-key you won't be able to connect to an old account, you'll have to make a new one.